Road commission joins mutual aid program in case of COVID-19 outbreak.

Road commission joins mutual aid program in case of COVID-19 outbreak.

HART – The Oceana County Road Commission is a member of the West Michigan Public Works Mutual Aid Program, which is a mutual aid agreement between 14 road agencies to assist each other in the event of a COVID-19 outbreak.

“Recently, the member agencies have developed the West Michigan Road Agencies COVID-19 response plan to assist each other in the event that one of the members suffered a COVID-19 outbreak in one of their garages or their workforce that left them unable to provide winter maintenance,” states OCRC Managing Director Mark Timmer.

“The COVID-19 response plan prioritizes snow and ice removal for the highest volume roads throughout a region which, by way of illustration, includes MDOT (Michigan Department of Transportation) freeways, expressways, business routes, and M-routes and primary county roads. Neighboring member agencies would work collaboratively to assist each other across jurisdictional boundaries by sending personnel and equipment to remove snow and ice during snow storms to ensure that the region’s main transportation arteries — the highest volume, highest speed roads — are cleared first.

“It was agreed that the safety of motorists and emergency personnel who use the highest volume roads in a region be of utmost importance, and snow and ice removal on these routes would receive the highest priority. This would potentially create a delay in winter maintenance of lower volume, and residential streets, and would mean residents could see another agency’s plow trucks on their streets, or see a truck from their community plowing in another area. The goal of enacting the plan is to seamlessly deploy resources in order to minimize the delay of service while clearing major routes in a region during or immediately after a snow storm.”

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